Saturday, December 31, 2011

Such good intentions...but no results yet for the next block. Not that I haven't sewed more but I'm still working on it. Even though it's New Year's Eve, I'm going to try to finish it up. Yesterday as I was piecing it together, my dd who doesn't drive, called to say that she was out of doggie food...and with three big dogs, that had to be corrected right away. So, off we went to get some along with a package of marshmallows and cans of corn for the chickens. Haha...yes, she feeds her chickens marshmallows and they love them. They lay lots of eggs so it's not hurting them at all and one of her Silkies had 5 little 'peepers' a month ago. Now why would a cute little chicken hatch babies in the middle of winter? We don't know and the locals have never heard of that happening. I think that Britney just likes to be different...and she felt like hatching chicks. lol Also, she's sitting under a warm heat lamp unlike the other 'girls'. Anyway, I better get started on that block or I'll be sewing with a glass of champagne in my hand...because I'm determined that block is getting done today!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Tough One

This particular block - F9 - is taking me some time to complete.  It has lots of tiny little pieces to be sewn together, then those tiny pieces must be sewn to other tiny pieces.
 These sections were strip-pieced and cut on a 45 degree bias but they had to be joined together to produce the eight diamonds that make up the center of the block.  Tedious!
 Only five more to join together...(yes, that's Jaik snoozing on the instructions haha)
 ....then decide if I wanted the green print in the center or the more colorful fabric....
 Jaik helped as much as he could but I decided that the green center looked best because I still have to put the corners on and the yellow will fade into the green too much for the block to look dramatic.  So, tomorrow I'll finish it up.

I do have to go to the post office to mail off a fruit cake to my son in California tomorrow after picking up a few things to include that my dd forgot to send to him also.  Even though it was a wonderful and fun Christmas, I guess it was a little hectic for me to be sending forgotten items after the fact, huh?

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of silliness from Christmas Eve.  My DIL has a bit of a silly streak and likes to wear mustaches at her parties and she talked my dd into doing the same. 
 As you can see, Laura had a hard time not laughing when she saw herself.  A fun time indeed.  And good risotto for din-din.
Can't wait for New Year's!!  lol

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Holiday Season

The time between Hallowe'en and New Years day was two months of sewing, having parties and going out for lunch with one person or another. Oh, and did I mention traveling to visit people in faraway localities? It's been a little busy here.

That doesn't mean that my sewing machine got a rest. On the contrary, it was probably busier than usual...I made/revised/helped with 3 or 4 Hallowe'en costumes, then shopped for fabric to sew up a few casual items to take to northern California for Thanksgiving and whipped up a dressy dress for dinner before Christmas. Working on 'the quilt' was put on the back burner.

Now that Christmas is over and there's no more decorating to be done and entertaining is over until New Year's Eve, my thoughts turned to blocks...blocks for the yellow quilt.  I made this one on Boxing Day...
F-7













 ....and this one today.
F-8


These blocks were added to the F row of the quilt in November.


...as was this one.













So, even though I only added five new blocks to the quilt, I feel like I've done a lot over the past couple of months.  And because I might turn these blocks 'on point', the F row may be where I stop and think about how I want to complete this quilt...but I really don't like to think of myself as a quitter.....so that may not happen and the additional 7 rows of ten might happen.  I must think about it and decide what will make me happy. ;-))